Dear readers — today’s edition comes to you in partnership with our brand-new sister paper, The Exchange! Our colleagues over in Leeds have been hurting their carpal tunnels over the mixing bowl, cooking up a piece about Manchester and Leeds' most infamous baker: Rich Myers of GetBaked fame. If you’ve got ties to West Yorkshire, check them out! If you’ve only got eyes for Manchester, read on…
By Brad Deas and Moya Lothian-McLean
Rich Myers is baring his soul to me.
“I’m an insecure guy to be completely honest,” the 37-year-old chef says. I’m surprised at the turn the conversation has taken. When I contacted Myers for comment on a piece (this piece in fact) I’m writing about GetBaked – his unprecedentedly successful yet controversial bakery business – he’d initially said he could only give me 15 minutes. He’s in the midst of officially opening GetBaked Covent Garden, a collaboration with a bougie popcorn brand already housed there. The launch has caused quite the stir back in Leeds, where Myers is from and where GetBaked was founded.
But an hour later, we’re still on the phone and the conversation is getting deep.
“Sometimes I massively regret being the face,” says Myers of his business. This is unexpected: GetBaked might just be Leeds’ biggest export since Tom Zanetti. The bakery’s 24-layer chocolate cakes and mountainous, cream covered pies have become viral sensations online and spawned copycats stocked across Britain’s biggest supermarkets. From his mum’s kitchen in Alwoodley, Myer’s brand expanded to brick-and-mortar stores in Headingley and Manchester, with the Covent Garden collab opening this month. But Myers himself is no hometown hero.
“Cunt,” is the verdict on Reddit. Newspapers have dubbed him the “UK’s rudest baker” thanks to the curt language he uses on social media and when responding to customers.
“I can’t be the only one to see through this absolute weapon”, read a recent post on the dedicated Leeds subreddit. Attached were pictures of Myers' abrasive interactions with people online. One example is a sarcastic Instagram comment about the new Covent Garden site — “But Headingley rent was too expensive. Aye”.
Myers responded via the GetBaked Instagram account, writing: “To clarify, anyone else who shares this persons [sic] opinion can also get fucked. Even if you’re a regular customer, I don’t want or need your money. Cheers.”
Further down the subreddit thread, Leeds residents piled in, with rumour and gossip they’d heard about Myers. The consensus? “Proper tit”.
Controversies like this have helped make GetBaked the “biggest online bakery in the UK”, as Myers claims. He’s based this estimate on hard numbers, not followers: GetBaked handles 10,000 orders a week all over the UK and is on target for £10m in revenue this year.
For what started out as a kitchen operation, this is a dream come true. But much like Matilda, the Roald Dahl book that inspired GetBaked’s most famous product, the bakery needed a great antagonist foil to become truly gripping. In order to make his fairytale happen, Myers turned himself into a villain.
But the consequences have been a hostile hometown, declining mental health and even threats to desecrate his father’s grave.
All this — over cake?
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